Making virtual teams work ten basic principles

Running Head: ALPHA 1

Running Head: ALPHA 4

Trident University International

Team Alpha

Roy Alford, Monserrat Gonzalez, Mark Crase, Raymond Putnam

MGMT 508 Leadership of Teams

Module 2 SLP 2

Dr. Michael Alexander

September 15, 2019

List of Practical Tips

· Listen to each other and give constructive feedback to one another which will help with the overall project.

· Create a Google Doc to see how each team member is progressing on their sections and on there the team can talk to each other.

· Maintain Clarity: In virtual teams, it is easy for members to start tripping over each other on what areas of responsibility are assigned to individuals. Clear direction is important for the team’s success and to avoid the bystander effect in which members count on others to take action (Sullivan, 2017).

· Commit to a Communication Charter: Communication is often less frequent and less rich with virtual teams due to technology limitations while meaning/understanding can be lost between team members (Greenberg, P., Greenberg & Lederer, 2007) To avoid this, communication must have clear and specific rules to be followed (Watkins, 2013).

Team Alpha: SLP 2

When working in a team, connection is one of the most important aspects as it relates to team functioning and commitment. Without great communication, a team will not succeed together and accomplish their goals. Aside from great connection there is a lot that goes into a team’s great interaction. In this Session Long Project, Team Alpha will discuss how we established task and interpersonal connection, which collaboration tools we used, discuss the barriers we encountered, and finally how we addressed those barriers.

Task and Interpersonal Connection

First and foremost, we believe that Team Alpha’s resources like the module discussion was a great way for us to stay connected and create our strong communication. From a start we knew from our instructor’s instructions that we had to use this tool to stay communicated. This was easy for us because we already log-in the student portal to view our assignments, so it was a great way to begin our communication. This led to our task connection through collaboration we were able to work together and come to a decision to establish our own tasks that would eventually lead to the completion of our assignment.

We established interpersonal connection through supportiveness. According to the home module background readings, through supportiveness, Team Alpha was able to encourage each other and stay up to date on how each of us was doing with our designated sections in the assignment. Reviewing each other’s work and giving feedback was a great way to know we each were doing a good job and gave us the motivation to continue to work hard. Being supportive towards one another lead to trust and information sharing. Our team dynamic is strong, and we accomplish our goals.

Collaboration Tools

The third question for Module 2 was, did team Alpha select the appropriate collaboration tools to promote efforts in forming a connectedness that the virtual team required to perform effectively? I would say yes; although our choice may not have been new or exciting, it was successful. So far, we have used the discussion site as our platform for communication. We also have shared e-mail addresses with each other as a backup in case the unexpected occurs such as if the Trident website was to go down (Sullivan, 2017). As a connected team, I feel we have a good understanding of the goals for our group to successfully compete and gain virtual teaming skills by playing the Virtual Teams:101 Tips game. Our roles have been spelled out by choosing a modular design and leaderless leadership structure.

To solidify our efforts for excellent performance, we have defined tasks and the methods for the team (Watkins, 2013). Coordination of teams is hard enough when they are co-located for when working as a virtual team clarifying tasks and the processes for each team member is extremely important. The Alpha team has started early in the module by identifying who would take the questions, introduction and conclusion related to this SLP assignment. Using a more democratic leaderless structure of not being assigned work, we each selected a portion of the paper to focus on (Mapping out, n.d.). These tasks were evenly parceled out to match the modular design of the team and has proved to be effective (Mapping out, n.d.).

To establish connectedness of a virtual team, there typically must be trust and the Alpha team was able to build a swift level of trust through honest communication on our discussion post (Greenberg, P., Greenberg, R. & Lederer, 2007). Although other forms of communication are richer in emotions/reactions, the trust factor is what allows us to effectively use the discussion post/e-mail as an effective collaboration tool (Cordialism, 2011).

Barriers to Connectiveness

Barriers to connectiveness in an exclusively online environment can pose serious

concerns to the outcome of a team project. It has been said numerous times, that, message

sent does not equate to message received. In a data driven world, we have expectations that

our technology is so well established that there will be seamless communications between all

parties, regardless of geographical separations. As we know, this is not the case. In the

current situation for the beginning of this class, it was agreed that all parties would check the

message board at a minimum of Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The group has chosen the

Trident message board and personal email accounts to communicate and complete the

assignments. As stated already, digital transmissions are not as seamless as we would like

them to be. This issue, coupled with four different people, with four different life styles, with

the adage of work and home schedules thrown into the mix, make for a tremendous amount

of room for mis-communications and delayed efforts for compliance. This is most definitely

where the trust piece is at its most critical. “A variant on relational trust—and the most

complex aspect of trust in general—occurs during cooperation, when all parties strive to

achieve a goal that they can’t attain separately and that hinges on the actions of everyone

involved.” (Harell & Daim, 2009) This statement takes on an additional dimension, as the

members of this team do not know each other and can only make a valuation of trust based

on their assumed perceptions of the individual team members interest in communicating early

and often throughout the process. In example, an individual who waits until day 10 of a 14-

day project to engage, may be viewed as someone who does not warrant a certain level of

trust. There may be extenuating circumstance, but without communication, the level of trust

could be diminished.

Addressing Barriers in Communication

I would say yes, our team tried to address the barriers raised by communication using the methods as described in the readings for the module. The very first challenge was dispersion which is an obvious challenge that faces virtual teams since they are not co-located. We tried to address this challenge by establishing a team overlap which included three to four hours and multiple week connections, when all of the members were online (Queen et al. 2015). This assisted in countering the issue of time zones since, despite the different time zones; there was a dedication to the meeting times. This was further reinforced by the fact that the meeting time was set as a routine which then meant that the members were aware that on a certain time, there were 3 group meetings and therefore members availed themselves.

There was also the issue of the speed of communication. We tried to address the issue of speed of communication by having numerous channels of communication. The numerous channels provided the leeway for the team to have ways to communicate any information that may be urgent, as well as information that was not urgent, could be communicated through the normal channels (Katzenbach n.d). The speed of communication was also affected by the time zones but as earlier mentioned it was addressed by the establishment of a team overlap that saw all the members online for a specific period save for the times when urgent communication needed to be made.

The challenge that was presented by richness as explained by the Media Richness Theory was also addressed. The problem was the lack of non-verbal cues and gestures that are often lost when a person uses phone calls and messages (Cordialism, 2011). To address this, we chose to use emails and on-line messages as opposed to video connectivity which would set a whole new realm of challenges. This also ensured that the emotions as presented by the group members were well conveyed and received and therefore improved the team members’ connections on a personal level.

There was an additional factor we hadn’t addressed or encountered and that was the challenge of overcoming mother nature. The current hurricane created a bit of a connectivity and time concern for Ray and Roy as they had family members that needed to be transported to safe areas. Ray was almost 13 hours from his location and resulted in logistical issues with connectivity and coordination. Overall, we have worked well together and will continue for the rest of the class.

References

Cordialism. (2011) Media Richness Theory. Retrieved from https://cordialism.wordpress.com/2011/11/25/media-richness-theory/

Georgina Harell, Tugrul U Daim. (2009) Virtual teams and the importance of building

trust. IT Professional Magazine. Washington: Vol. 11, Iss. 6; p. 46.

Greenberg, P. S., Greenberg, R. H., & Lederer, Y. (2007). Creating and sustaining trust in virtual teams. Business Horizons, 50(4). 325-333.

Katzenbach, J. R., & Smith, D. K. (1993). The wisdom of teams: Creating the high-performance organization.

Mapping out the creative process and work design approach. Retrieved from http://media.wiley.com/product_data/excerpt/46/07879711/0787971146.pdf

Sullivan, T. (2017). A New Way To Study Business | Hult International Business School. 6 tips for managing virtual teams. Retrieved from http://www.hult.edu/blog/6-tips-managing-virtual-teams/

Watkins, M. (2013). Harvard Business Review - Ideas and Advice for Leaders. Making Virtual Teams Work: Ten Basic Principles. Retrieved from http://hbr.org/2013/06/making-virtual-teams-work-ten

Quinn, R. E., Faerman, S. R., & Thompson, M. P. (2015). Becoming a Master Manager: A Competing Values Approach.